Music, therefore, cost him little. As for theatres, I got him and
Ellen as many orders as they liked, so these cost them nothing. The
Sunday outings were a small item; for a shilling or two he could get a
return ticket to some place far enough out of town to give him a
good walk and a thorough change for the day. Ellen went with him the
first few times, but she said she found it too much for her, there
were a few of her old friends whom she should sometimes like to see,
and they and he, she said, would not hit it off perhaps too well, so
it would be better for him to go alone. This seemed so sensible, and
suited Ernest so exactly that he readily fell into it, nor did he
suspect dangers which were apparent enough to me when I heard how
she had treated the matter. I kept silence, however, and for a time
all continued to go well. As I have said, one of his chief pleasures
was in writing. If a man carries with him a little sketch book and
is continually jotting down sketches, he has the artistic instinct;
a hundred things may hinder his due development, but the instinct is
there. The literary instinct may be known by a man's keeping a small
note-book in his waistcoat pocket, into which he jots down anything
that strikes him, or any good thing that he hears said, or a reference
to any passage which he thinks will come in useful to him.
Pages:
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559